WASHINGTON (AFP) – Millions of Americans could be homeless as of Sunday, when nationwide eviction restrictions end, even as billions in government money meant to help them go untapped.
The wave of evictions will come as the fast-spreading delta variant takes hold in the country and there is a high demand for rental housing in the hot real estate market.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday urged Congress to extend the 11-month-old eviction moratorium, following a recent Supreme Court ruling that the White House could not extend the measure until September.
Democratic leaders in Congress were pushing for an expansion, but it was unclear whether he had votes even among moderates in his own party to prevent the ban from ending.
Efforts in the House stalled Friday after a move to pass the extension failed, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying in a statement that “not a single Republican would support this measure.”
A day earlier, she called the extension a “moral imperative.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a press conference at the Capitol in Washington, July 30, 2021 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
He called on governors and local officials to “take whatever steps are necessary to distribute the rent aid Congress has already allocated.”
Unlike other pandemic-related aid that was delivered from Washington, such as stimulus checks, it was the states, counties and cities that were responsible for building programs from the ground up to provide scheduled aid for renters.
The Treasury Department said that as of June, less than three weeks after Biden took office, only $3 billion in aid had reached households out of the $25 billion sent to states and territories in early February.
FILE – In this October 14, 2020, file photo, housing activists hold a sign in Swampscott, Massachusetts (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, FILE).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered an eviction moratorium in September 2020, as the world’s largest economy lost more than 20 million jobs amid the pandemic shutdown. The CDC feared that homelessness would lead to coronavirus infections.
Although more than half of those lost jobs were recovered as businesses were able to reopen, many families still haven’t been able to catch up on missed rent payments.
The Census Bureau’s latest Household Pulse survey during the first week of July showed that of the 51 million renters surveyed, 7.4 million were behind on their rent and nearly half of them said they were at risk of eviction in the next two months. Was.
where is the help?
As of the end of June, only 450,000 households had received assistance through the Emergency Rent Assistance Program, and some states and territories have yet to pay any funds, according to Treasury data.
The Treasury this week launched a campaign to spread the word about the program and help officials get their systems up and running, which are modeled in Virginia and Houston, which have been successful in helping struggling families.
Soon after taking office, the Biden administration eased paperwork and eligibility requirements for the program, but the Treasury says management remains in the hands of state and local officials.
The White House also delegated responsibility to the states.
“There can be no excuse for any state or territory not to expedite funding to landlords and tenants who have been injured during this pandemic,” Biden said.
“Every state and local government should make sure we can stop every eviction,” he said in a statement on Friday.
And while the White House cannot act, there is nothing stopping state and local officials from establishing their own security, Biden said.
‘Take out all the stops’
Pelosi called the delay an unjust “bureaucratic situation”.
California Democrat Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, introduced the bill to increase the eviction prohibition.
“I am removing all stops right now,” she tweeted on Friday.
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pellone, left, and House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters, go over their notes as delegates. Patrick McHenry comes to the right as the House Rules Committee prepares an emergency extension of the eviction moratorium at the Capitol in Washington. , July 30, 2021 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
But some Democrats oppose the move, and a congressional source confirmed to AFP that many were planning to leave the city rather than participate in the vote, allowing the party to use its slim majority to push the bill. It became difficult to do.
A handful of states and Washington, DC have implemented their own temporary eviction protections, and the White House has also asked government departments involved in housing to extend eviction restrictions to federally insured properties they control.
Another $21.5 billion is available in a second round of funding, but it will not go out until the first tranche is spent.